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He impressed sufficiently enough to attract a £2m bid from Bristol City in January 2016 - only to turn down the deal on the influence of his father.

Bolton were on a downward spiral at that point, sitting bottom of the Championship, and many expected the forward to take the move.

Yet he elected to stay with his boyhood club, with then Robins boss Steve Cotterill suggesting the player, his agent and father were not entirely convinced with the prospect of joining the Robins.

Zach Clough

He said: "I spent five hours on Sunday with Zach, his Dad and his agent. I think, initially, the lad wasn’t enamoured with coming to Bristol City.

"Then you meet him and I think he saw us in a different light. The agent said to me that the deal would need to be a head-turning offer. We made an offer but obviously it wasn’t head-turning enough.

"Having said that, I think the offer was good and fair and one that fits with our players (in terms of wages).

"In the end it was a no-go, but I still believe we were right not to pay what his agent wanted. I don't think he was being greedy, I understand it and I wish him all the best for the rest of the season, there’s no animosity there."

Clough later said it took him 10 seconds to decide against moving to the Robins - saying his dad had made the decision for him.

"When the bid was put in, I found out about 10pm the night before we played Eastleigh," he said.

"I phoned my dad and he started laughing. He said ‘no chance’. And that was it.